NBA's King of Talking

Their agent, Jeff Schwartz, arranged a workout schedule for them. On May 23, Kemba Walker, Jia Fei, and Art Mayok traveled to Cleveland in the central United States for a workout with the Cavaliers.

Schwartz chose Cleveland as the first stop because the Cavaliers have the number one and number four picks in the first round, and the 32nd and 54th picks in the second round, making them the "richest" team in this year's draft. He felt it was reasonable to give such a team a tryout first to make a good impression. Besides, the two cities are very close; you can drive there directly from Chicago without even needing to fly.

Clearly, the number one pick and the number four pick are Schwartz's targets for Kemba Walker, while the two second-round picks are the targets for Jia Fei and Art Ryok.

On the morning of the 23rd, Jia Fei and his two companions got into a Toyota Sienna minivan at their hotel in Chicago. The driver was Jeff Schwartz's assistant.

Jia Fei's entire impression of the Cleveland Cavaliers comes from LeBron James, who has already teamed up with his team in Miami. The Cavaliers are truly a terrible team now, but bad teams have their advantages too—not only do they have many draft picks, but they also have many opportunities! Joining the Cavaliers wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

Let's assume, for example, that the Cavaliers use the 4th pick to select Kemba Walker, and then use the two second-round picks to select Jafi and Art Mayork respectively. In that case, these three Cornell University students would start the "post-super team era" in Cleveland.

Jia Fei thought that this was actually quite a good idea!

Chicago to Cleveland is only about 500 kilometers, and Jia Fei and his team arrived in the afternoon. After arriving, they ate something and then met with the Cavaliers' general manager, Chris Grant.

This was Jia Fei's first time in Cleveland. After arriving, he felt that there was a reason why James was on "Running Man"—the city did indeed lack vitality and seemed somewhat dilapidated. It couldn't compare to Los Angeles on the West Coast, let alone Hollywood, or even to Chicago, where they had only recently settled.

But then again, even if Cleveland is behind, that's no excuse for you, LeBron, to run away! How are you any different from a scumbag who makes a promise and then runs away?

The Cavaliers value Jia Fei and his group highly. All three are key rotation players for the NCAA champion UConn, with Kemba Walker being the Most Outstanding Player and a top prospect this year.

Jia Fei and his team were a bit sore from sitting in the car for half a day. Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant was very considerate and immediately said that there was no rush for a tryout today, and it could be done tomorrow or the day after.

That evening, Chris Grant also invited Jia Fei and his group to dinner at the Scofield Kimpton Hotel in downtown Cleveland.

After dinner, Jia Fei and his group checked into the hotel.

Jia Fei and two others were in the hotel room.

"Hey Kemba, if the Cavaliers really do pick you with the number one pick, and they use their two second-round picks to pick me and Artest, that would be pretty good too," Jia Fei said with a smile.

Kemba Walker nodded in satisfaction: "Yes, although I don't particularly like this city, I'm willing to do it for the sake of the top scorer!"

Art Mayork said, "I'd be willing to do that, as long as I get selected and have a contract."

Jia Fei smiled and said, "Me too. All I need is a contract. As long as I don't go hungry and can stay in the NBA, we can talk about the rest later."

Jia Fei was not joking. Even with Iverson's physical advantages, he didn't believe he was guaranteed a draft pick and a contract. The NBA is never short of talent; its fewer than 500 players represent some of the best basketball players in the world.

The following day, Jia Fei and two others met with the Cavaliers' general manager, Chris Grant, and head coach, Byron Scott, at the Cavaliers' training facility.

Byron Scott succeeded Bread, who had led the Nets to the Finals, but he was still not considered a great coach. Most people believed that he was able to lead the team to the Finals simply because he was riding on Kidd's coattails.

The fact that the Cavaliers had their general manager and head coach attend the rookie tryouts shows how much they value Jia Fei and his two teammates.

The content of the tryouts was similar to that in Chicago, ranging from physical tests to tests of shooting, dribbling, and other aspects, as well as some one-on-one tests.

After the test, Jia Fei and his team immediately drove to Detroit for a tryout with the Pistons.

The Pistons hold the 8th overall pick in this year's draft, and they have a strong interest in Kemba Walker. In addition to the 8th pick, they also have two second-round picks, so they invited Jia Fei and Art Mayork to try out for them.

After their tryouts in Detroit, the three players, Jia Fei, went their separate ways. Jia Fei went to Chicago for a tryout with the Bulls, Art Mayok stayed in Detroit, and Kemba Walker went to Toronto for a tryout with the Raptors.

Although the Bulls have two first-round picks this year, one is the 28th pick and the other is the 30th pick, which are relatively low. Moreover, they already have the reigning regular season MVP Derrick Rose, so their need for Kemba Walker is not great, and they can't acquire him with their first-round picks anyway.

After finishing his workout with the Bulls, Jia Fei went to Miami for a workout with the Heat, and then flew directly to Oklahoma City for a workout with the Thunder.

In just over a week, Jia Fei had already had tryouts with five teams. He felt like he was constantly on the go, either by car or plane, either at tryouts or on his way to tryouts—he was practically a robot. But he had no choice. To make a living in the NBA, he'd do tryouts with all 30 teams, let alone five. If he could be drafted in the end, it would all be worth it.

On May 31, the plane carrying Jia Fei was at an airport in Houston, Texas.

Jia Fei has memories of this city because just over a month ago, he and his team defeated the Butler University Bulldogs here to win their third NCAA championship trophy.

Unexpectedly, just over a month later, he would be giving a tryout to the Rockets. Sometimes, there are just too many coincidences.

The Rockets possess the 14th overall pick in the first round and the 8th overall pick in the second round this year. On that day, Jia Fei joined Kemba Walker and Art Mayok, who will also have workouts with the Rockets.

Kemba Walker wasn't particularly interested in the tryout; he felt his draft position shouldn't be as low as 14th. As for Jia Fei, he didn't have much affection for the Rockets. The team's general manager, Morey, was a scoundrel, and the owner was a penny-pincher. Besides, according to the timeline of his previous life, Yao Ming would also retire this year, so there was even less reason for him to stay.

Besides, there are only two spots available. You invited three people to try out, and even if you selected all of them, you can only choose two!